


Copper and Citrus

by yikeslikenikes



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Character Turned Into Vampire, Guilt, Human Lee Minhyuk, Hyungwon Bingo, Interviews, Lots of oranges, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Morally Ambiguous Character, Regret, Things Get Better, Unconventional vampire, Vampire Chae Hyungwon, With a vampire, but it makes sense in the plot, but neither of them are homophobic, fictional setting, minhyuk is a journalist, references to past homophobia, the beach, unemotional character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25550290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikeslikenikes/pseuds/yikeslikenikes
Summary: The haze of pink is stronger now. Almost red in the fire light.“You said...when you were turned. Turned into what?”“There it is. Your real question.”Minhyuk waits as Hyungwon peels the next orange and pulls it apart. Pulls off another section, pops it in his mouth, chews.“I was twenty-six years old when I got turned into a vampire all those years ago,” Hyungwon says after he swallows.
Relationships: Chae Hyungwon/Lee Minhyuk
Comments: 10
Kudos: 75
Collections: Hyungwon Bingo: Round 2





	Copper and Citrus

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Hyungwon Bingo, prompt: pink.
> 
> This is very much based off of interview w/ a vampire. 
> 
> I wrote this when I was visiting family in my home country, and the setting is very inspired by that.

The sun sets over the ocean and paints the dunes, the palm trees, and the sky pink. It’s a haze that feels unfamiliar to Minhyuk’s eyes, but he can’t stop staring at it. 

He ended up here after listening to people’s stories about a pseudo-mythical little fishing village in the Caribbean, seemingly untouched by the rest of the world (but somehow still friendly to strangers). After investigating for a bit, he set off in search of it. It wasn’t as difficult to find as the stories had made it seem. The tiny seaside town had lots of names, but the locals called it La Llave, so that’s what Minhyuk called it too. He had wondered here through taxis on English and some broken Spanish, searching for a new subject for his blog. 

La Llave is a world within a world, concrete buildings stacked up only two stories high but crowded next to each other, little ornate iron gates keeping people from sneaking into the thin alleys between them. The colors were the first thing that Minhyuk was struck by when he walked through town looking for a place to stay. Every building painted up in hues of blue and pink and green and orange, matte in the spray of salt and sand, but still vibrant as ever. 

The only hostel is located at the end of the small downtown area, which is only a street really, near the beach, and it only costs $75 to rent a private room for the night. It’s the only building on the street where the top floor and the bottom floor are painted the same color, a deep red that feels more comforting than intimidating as Minhyuk walks up to it. The private room he ends up in has one twin bed next to a window that faces the ocean, a sink and a mirror, a bedside cabinet, a key to the bathroom down the hall, and a ceiling fan. 

It is enough, Minhyuk thinks, because he will really only be in there to sleep.    
It is in the open-air market made up of lots of stands and smiling faces and the smell of cooking meat and bread further back down the street that Minhyuk sees him for the first time. 

Minhyuk had always known a person with a story, a riveting story, at first glance. And this man, he definitely had a story. 

He seemed to almost float through the different stands, silence falling around him. The sellers wouldn’t flinch away from him, but their smiles would die down, and once he had passed, they silently crossed themselves. He was covered head to toe, wearing a hat sitting on his head, a silk scarf wrapped around his neck up to the nose, and a matching white long-sleeve shirt and long pants. The only uncovered parts of him were his pale hands and bare feet. 

Minhyuk saw him and watched as he made his way through the little market, stopping only at the fruit stand to buy a bag full of oranges with a few coins he pulled from his pockets, and then floating away down the street toward the beach. 

“ _ El Coreano ha vivido aquí por muchos años, _ ” somebody behind Minhyuk says. 

Even though Minhyuk barely understands what they said, he does understand the part that piques his interest the most. They had called the man Korean. It seemed strange to run into another Korean all the way across the world in this remote place. 

He had to get his story. Find out how he ended up there. And why the people crossed themselves as they passed. 

That’s how Minhyuk ended up on the dunes, following sandy footsteps through the pink haze of the sunset to find him. 

There was a rocky cliff on one side of the beach in La Llave. That’s where the footsteps lead him. To a small cave carved out in the side of it. 

“Hello?” Minhyuk asks. He’s speaking his native tongue which is strange in such a foreign setting. But then again, there was nothing normal at all about any of this.

He peers into the cave and sees a fire going, and he calls again, taking a tentative step forward. 

“What are you doing here?”

Minhyuk freezes and looks up to see the man from earlier, his face now uncovered. 

There’s a moment where Minhyuk has to gather his senses because he truly was not expecting such a beautiful face to greet him. Small and pouty and cute with big brown eyes that are bright in the firelight. Skin so smooth it looks like alabaster. Hair long and shaggy and dark as it comes down around his neck, curling slightly out. 

“Hello,” Minhyuk says again before he gives a quick little bow. The man just stares at him, nothing there behind his gaze. 

“My name is Minhyuk. I’m a journalist, and I...look for interesting people to tell me their stories. I saw you in the market, and I just had to see if you’d be willing to talk to me?”

“I haven’t heard someone speak Korean in a long time,” he says. 

Minhyuk smiles. “So? What do you say?”

The man looks him over before he motions for him to follow him. He doesn’t go very far though. 

The cave itself isn’t very large, the inside shaped like a misshapen lightbulb, opening up into a room with a little space leading off to the left. When Minhyuk looks up, he sees that there is a hole above them that the smoke from the fire floats out of. 

The man just moves to the back wall and sits down in a pile of pillows and blankets before picking up an already peeled orange. 

Minhyuk blinks and moves past the fire, sitting on a flat rock a few feet away. 

“Do you mind if I record us?” Minhyuk asks, reaching into his pocket to pull out his tape recorder. 

“I don’t mind much of anything,” the man answers. He rips the orange in half and licks the juice off the side of his hand before he pulls one of the sections off and pops it into his mouth. 

Minhyuk nods, taking him in. He looks like a renaissance painting, reclined back on cushions and fabric, eating fresh fruit and staring into the fire. He swallows, a sense of danger tickling up his spine before he clicks record and puts the recorder down between them. 

“This is Minhyuk recording at--” he glances at his watch, “5:43 PM from a cave on the beach in La Llave.”

He looks up at the man, and the man doesn’t look at him. Just eats his orange, occasionally licking the juice from his fingers. 

“What’s your name? Or what should I call you?” Minhyuk asks. 

The man doesn’t look up.

“My name feels foreign on my tongue now,” he says. 

“Should I just call you the Korean? Like the locals do?”

That does get the man to look up, if only for a moment. Then he is just picking up another orange. 

“Call me what you wish, but my name is Hyungwon.”

Hyungwon. Minhyuk mouths it as he settles down in his seat. 

“I want to ask how old you are. Should I be speaking formally?” Minhyuk asks. 

He thought he might get a laugh. All he gets is a blank look as Hyungwon starts peeling the orange with his hands. 

“You don’t have to speak formally, although I am older than you,” Hyungwon says. 

“Oh? And how do you know that?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon pauses. Hums to himself. 

“I guess I don’t. How old are you then?”

“Twenty-seven,” Minhyuk says. 

Hyungwon looks at him and gives him the emptiest smile Minhyuk has ever seen. It makes his skin break out in goosebumps. It’s like watching a corpse animate. And then Minhyuk sees them. Two sharp little fangs where his canines should be. 

“I guess if we had met when I had just been turned, you would have been my elder. I was twenty-six then,” he muses. 

Minhyuk shivers, glancing back at the mouth of the cave, wondering if he could make it if he ran for it. Hyungwon groans and bites right into his orange instead of breaking it apart. 

“Calm your heart. Fear is almost deafening,” Hyungwon grumbles. 

Minhyuk looks back at him and takes a deep breath. 

“You...you can hear my heart?” Minhyuk asks. 

“What a strange way to dodge the question you truly want to ask,” Hyungwon says. He sucks the orange dry before tossing what’s left aside and picking up another. 

The haze of pink is stronger now. Almost red in the fire light. 

“You said...when you were turned. Turned into what?”

“There it is. Your real question.”

Minhyuk waits as Hyungwon peels the next orange and pulls it apart. Pulls off another section, pops it in his mouth, chews. 

“I was twenty-six years old when I got turned into a vampire all those years ago,” Hyungwon says after he swallows. 

“A...a vampire,” Minhyuk croaks out. 

“Indeed. Although, fear not. You are in no danger here. At least not from me. The mosquitos drink more blood than I do,” Hyungwon says. He pops another section into his mouth, and Minhyuk can only stare. 

“How...how many years ago was this?” Minhyuk asks.

He knows he should question him. Anybody could claim to be a vampire, and Minhyuk would laugh them off. But just by looking at him, Minhyuk knows it’s true. Hyungwon is not of this earth. Not of this time. There was no emotion behind his eyes, no passion behind his movements. His voice was like listening to the still water of a pond get disturbed instead of the rushing of a stream or a river like most people. 

The fangs also didn’t help. 

“Hm. What year is it now?” Hyungwon asks. 

“2020. June 7th, 2020,” Minhyuk answers.

Hyungwon squints his eyes a bit. 

“Two hundred and twenty-six then. Almost exactly two hundred years since I was turned, give or take a few months,” he says. 

Minhyuk lets out a shaky sigh before he clears his throat. 

“You don’t drink blood then?” he asks. 

“Not for a long time,” Hyungwon answers. He finishes his third orange and reaches for his fourth one.

“Then how do you…”

Hyungwon looks up at him as his fingers nimbly peel the orange. 

“The oranges?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon smiles, and it’s slightly less ghastly than the first time. But the fangs...they make Minhyuk want to call this a day and bolt out of there. 

“Yes. The oranges. It’s incredible what a vampire can live off of these days,” Hyungwon says before he eats another section, then another.

Minhyuk laughs a bit, nervous, and Hyungwon looks up at him, surprised. Minhyuk quickly stops. 

“And you don’t mind me asking you questions?” he asks. 

Hyungwon sighs, and he sounds exhausted already. It’s the first actual emotion Minhyuk picks up from him. 

“I don’t mind,” Hyungwon says softly. 

“You covered yourself when you went out. Is it because of the sun?” Minhyuk asks. 

“No.”

Hyungwon is on his fifth orange now, his last one. He doesn’t elaborate, so Minhyuk prompts him. 

“Why do you cover yourself up so much?”

“The sand. I have to sleep on it. I’d rather not walk around in it as well.”

“I see. So the sun doesn’t bother you?”

“It doesn’t. It only bothered me when I was human.”

Minhyuk nods along. 

“And garlic? Crosses?” he asks. 

“Crosses don’t bother me. The smell of garlic is interesting. Strong. I can’t eat anything except these and blood, though,” Hyungwon says. 

“Blood. All blood or just human blood?” Minhyuk asks. 

“I guess you could survive off pig’s blood or cow’s blood or even the blood of rats, but human blood is the only thing I ever drank,” Hyungwon says. 

Hyungwon stops to gather up the orange peels he left scattered, putting them into a careful pile. 

“Maybe you should start at the beginning,” Minhyuk says. 

“The beginning? Some say God created the earth in seven days,” Hyungwon replies. 

That does make Minhyuk laugh, and Hyungwon glances up at him again. Minhyuk doesn’t muffle himself this time. 

“You don’t think you’re funny?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon hums and looks down at the pile. “It’s been a long time since anyone has laughed at me. I don’t mean to be funny.”

Minhyuk’s smile falls. “Do you not want me to laugh then?”

“It doesn’t matter either way. I don’t get offended.”

“It seems you don’t feel much at all,” Minhyuk says. Hyungwon blinks and stares at him. A shiver crawls down Minhyuk’s spine again at the blankness of it. There’s no scrutiny or anger or annoyance. Not even a question. Just two eyes looking at him. 

“I don’t,” Hyungwon answers after a time. 

“Is that because you’re a vampire?” Minhyuk asks. 

“No. Vampires feel just as strongly as humans do.”

“But you don’t?”

Hyungwon shrugs. “When you are surviving, it isn’t the same as living.”

“And that’s what you’re doing? Surviving instead of living?”

“I used to be living. Many years ago.”

Minhyuk watches as Hyungwon stands up slowly, gathering the orange peels in the palms of his hands. He takes two long steps closer, and Minhyuk cowers back a bit as he tosses them into the fire. The whole cave smells of citrus. 

“I don’t think you would have left alive if you had met me then,” Hyungwon muses.

Goosebumps break out across Minhyuk’s skin. He glances at the mouth of the cave again, finding the world dark. The sun has fully set then, bringing the world into an inky blue. The brightness of the fire kept it at bay though. Kept it outside of the cave. 

“If you are going to be scared the entire time you’re here, I’d rather have my time to sleep,” Hyungwon says. He settles back down on the blanket he had been sitting on, leaning back against a few pillows.

Minhyuk licks his lips before shaking his head. 

“You said I’m not in danger, and I trust you,” Minhyuk says. 

Hyungwon hums and closes his eyes. 

“Very well.”

Minhyuk readjusts in his seat, moving the recorder a bit closer to Hyungwon. 

“You say you say you were turned. How? Why?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon opens his eyes again, staring at the fire. 

“Like many vampires before me I was seduced by the promises of everlasting youth and riches and power.”

Minhyuk smiles and leans closer to listen better. Hyungwon has a way with words even if he doesn’t feel much. He speaks like a poet that had to stop writing for a decade and finally got asked to share his words again. Grand and pretty and slow, but not as lethargic as Minhyuk would think it’d be. 

“So you were seduced by another vampire?” Minhyuk asks. 

“I was, but not in the way you’re implying. He was more like...a brother to me.”

Minhyuk frowns, and Hyungwon looks at him, licking his lips a bit. 

“Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself,” Hyungwon says softly. 

“I did ask you to start from the beginning,” Minhyuk says with a small smile. 

Hyungwon looks at him, and there is a flicker of something this time. A twitch around the lips that Minhyuk almost thinks he imagines. 

“I was lucky to be born into the upper class, but even at my young age I could see things shifting. No one trusted each other. There was civil unrest. Even the royal family was said to be scheming at all times with each other.”

“We learn about that in history class,” Minhyuk says. 

“History. It’s strange to think of it that way. But yes. The world was changing and people were moving more, and that’s when he strolled into town.”

The fire crackles as Hyungwon pauses, and Minhyuk stretches a bit, thinking this will take a while. 

“He was a foreigner. Foreigners had gotten interested in our little kingdom then. Machiel was beautiful and haunting and commanded attention wherever he went but could also slip away unseen in an instant.”

That catches Minhyuk’s interest. He hadn’t expected a foreigner. 

“Where was Machiel from?”

“Holland. The Netherlands. They were trying to conquer everything at the time, but Machiel...he wasn’t looking to conquer anything. He was just...lonely. He had been wandering around alone for decades, and he missed having actual companionship.”

“And what were you looking for that you found it in him?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon blinks slow, looking up at the ceiling. 

“I guess I was looking for the same thing. I was lonely in a different way. Machiel was alone because he was a phantom out of time. I was lonely because I felt like I was living a life that wasn’t mine. Lonely people have a way of recognizing and finding each other, and that’s how Machiel found me.”

“So it moved pretty quickly then? You met him, and then you were letting him turn you?”

There is the smile again. Ghastly. A smile made because of some strange type of muscle memory, Minhyuk realizes. Hyungwon smiles not because he feels happy, but because he knows that he would have been once. 

“I left with him three days after I met him. The idea of being whatever I wanted to be, living outside of time, it appealed to me then. And the thing about vampires is that they can be convincing. They have been around long enough to know what pretty words to say and what not-so-pretty things to leave out.”

Minhyuk clears his throat, and Hyungwon pauses for him. 

“So Machiel comes to town, tells you about being a vampire, and you leave with him, so he can turn you,” Minhyuk says. 

“Yes. He made me into something more than myself. Something powerful and strange and secret. I had never felt more alive,” Hyungwon says. 

Minhyuk nods and glances down at his tape recorder to make sure it still has tape left, leaning back in his seat and settling in, ready for more of this story. 

But when he looks back up, Hyungwon is laying down on the blanket now, blinking slowly. 

“I usually sleep now. I don’t have much company,” Hyungwon says softly. 

The idea of losing this story is slightly terrifying. This is already the most interesting interview he had ever had. 

“Can I come back tomorrow then? I’ll...I’ll bring you oranges from the market and everything,” Minhyuk offers. 

Hyungwon hums and closes his eyes. 

“If you wish. I would need five,” he says. 

“I’ll be back then. Tomorrow.”

“Goodbye, Minhyuk.”

Minhyuk blinks for a moment as he realizes that Hyungwon has already fallen asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly. He takes the opportunity to quickly grab his tape recorder and turn it off before hurrying out of the cave. 

He breathes in the night air and shivers at the chill of the evening before hurrying across the dunes and sand back towards the lights of the town. 

The owner of the hostel seems relieved to see him, but Minhyuk doesn’t dare wonder why. 

Minhyuk buys ten oranges from the fruit stand in the market, holding both hands up to show how many. The sun beats down on him, making the back of his neck sweat even under the shade of his wide-brim hat, but he smiles as he takes the fruit from the vendor and carefully puts them into his own cloth bag. 

He doesn't want to acknowledge the strange looks he gets as he walks through the crowd towards the beach with his bag of oranges and backpack full of notebooks and tapes for his recorders. He's hoping Hyungwon will talk long enough to go through a few of them. 

The sun is high, but the breeze is cool as he walks across the beach and the dunes. The sand flies past him on the wind, a sting he can't quite place, and he makes his way to Hyungwon’s cave. 

“Hello?” Minhyuk calls as he gets to the mouth of it. Glancing in, he can see light filtering down from the same hole in the top, and Hyungwon’s legs stretched out on the blanket.

“Hyungwon?” Minhyuk calls as he steps in. 

Hyungwon shifts a bit, a foot twitching, a knee bending, and then his face appears in Minhyuk's view, eyes still shut and face scrunched up. 

Minhyuk can’t help but find him adorable. 

“I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd be asleep,” Minhyuk says. 

Hyungwon yawns and rubs at his eyes. “It's fine. I'm sleeping more often than not.”

Minhyuk puts on his best most charming smile and walks over to where Hyungwon is dusting sand off his clothes. 

“I brought you oranges like I promised,” he says, putting the cloth bag down next to him. He realizes, idly, that this is the closest that he's actually been to him. That if Hyungwon reached a hand out, he would touch him. Could grab him if he wanted. 

But Hyungwon just blinks and squints up at the sunlight, shuffling back against the cave wall where it was darker, more shaded. 

“I hope you like them. I got the ten best ones I could,” Minhyuk continues. When Hyungwon still doesn't look at him, he sighs and kneels down, carefully taking an orange out, the biggest juiciest one, and holds it out toward him. 

“Here.”

Hyungwon blinks and looks over at him. His eyes are still glossed over from sleep, but something seems to kick inside him then. One slender arm reaches out and takes the orange from Minhyuk’s hand, his frigid fingertips grazing against Minhyuk’s palm. Minhyuk manages to suppress the shiver as Hyungwon focuses on peeling his orange carefully. 

“Thank you,” Hyungwon says softly. 

Minhyuk grins and works on setting all the oranges out in a pile like Hyungwon had them the day before. 

“Of course! I said I would bring you some in exchange for more of your story,” Minhyuk says. 

Hyungwon blinks up at him slowly before nodding once. 

“Right,” he says. 

Minhyuk gets up and moves back to the rock he had sat on the night before. He puts his backpack down and starts setting up his tape recorder, putting it down between them before he pulls his notebook and pencil out. 

“You didn't have that before,” Hyungwon says. 

Minhyuk blinks up at him. “Oh. I like to draw and take notes if that’s alright?”

Hyungwon hums and pops sections of his first orange into his mouth. 

“Yesterday, you were telling me about how Machiel changed you,” Minhyuk prompts.

“I thought we had passed that to when I was already changed,” Hyungwon replies. 

Minhyuk licks his lips, taking in the way Hyungwon is already peeling his second orange.

“Well, I was wondering if you could talk about...how exactly you changed.”

Hyungwon chews thoughtfully for a moment. He licks his teeth, his fangs, and Minhyuk takes a deep breath before he starts to sketch. 

“It isn’t a very complicated process. You have to be dying first,” Hyungwon says. He stretches his neck a bit before finishing off the orange in his hand. 

“Dying?” Minhyuk asks. 

“Yes. Preferably by bleeding out at the hands of the person turning you. But then right before you actually die, they let you feed from them.” Hyungwon picks up another orange and swiftly starts peeling it. Minhyuk bites his lip and looks back down, keeps sketching. 

“So you drink vampire blood, and you become a vampire?”

“Well, at least some of the stories had to get something right, didn’t they?” Hyungwon says.

Glancing up, Minhyuk only just catches a glimpse of that empty little smile before it disappears. 

“Was that a joke?” Minhyuk asks, the corners of his lips twitching up. 

Hyungwon shrugs and licks his lips. “An attempt. Was it good?”

“It was. I enjoyed it at least.”

“You didn’t laugh like you did yesterday.”

Minhyuk looks back up at him and finds those empty eyes staring at him. He still can’t find any emotion in them, but there’s something more this time than yesterday. Something like curiosity, but not all the way there yet. 

“I’m sorry. I got too focused on…” Minhyuk trails off, gesturing down at his notebook. 

Hyungwon’s eyes move slowly as they go from Minhyuk’s face down to the notebook in his lap, then back up again. 

“It’s okay,” Hyungwon says. He finally starts eating his orange again, and Minhyuk finds himself strangely relieved to have his eyes off of him. Like breathing is harder under the weight of his gaze. 

Quiet covers the cave as Hyungwon eats, and Minhyuk goes back to sketching, lots of long lines and soft little curves where his clothes fall in a loose pile around him. They’re different from what he wore yesterday. Still white, but even looser than before with crocheted details around the neck. It looks cool and fresh in the heat of the cave. 

“So Machiel turned you. Where did you go from there?” Minhyuk asks.

“We could go anywhere we wanted. I didn’t mind as long as it was away from there. We traveled around what is now modern Korea for a while, Machiel teaching me everything he knows, and then we started traveling outside of Korea,” Hyungwon says. 

“What did he teach you?” 

This time, Hyungwon does make a face. It’s only there for a moment, a subtle little frown before it disappears. 

“Nothing that is worth learning for a human,” Hyungwon says. 

That chills something inside of Minhyuk as Hyungwon leans over to pick up another orange. 

“Like what?” Minhyuk asks, not wanting to let it go. 

Hyungwon sighs as he quickly peels the orange and bites into it. 

“Can I ask you questions, too?” he asks. 

Minhyuk blinks, tapping the side of his pencil against the spirals. 

“You have questions about me?”

“Have you ever killed someone?”

Minhyuk coughs as he looks up at him, wide-eyed.

“What?”

Hyungwon blinks slow, staring at him. 

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“N-no, why would you--”

“I have. So many people that I don’t even remember a single face of theirs,” Hyungwon says simply. 

It’s silent again as Hyungwon leans back and finishes off his orange. Minhyuk’s head is spinning, trying to find his bearings again. 

“That’s what I learned from Machiel. How to kill without feeling. Without remorse. How to elongate the moment so the blood stays warm,” Hyungwon says softly. 

Shifting, Minhyuk tries to will himself to be calm. He remembers Hyungwon complaining about his heartbeat, and he doesn’t want to hear the complaint again. 

“Y-you kill everyone you feed from?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon blinks a bit, staring off at the cave wall. 

“I think I left one or two alive.”

Minhyuk blinks. “One or two? In all your long life?”

Hyungwon looks at him. 

“Being a vampire isn’t pretty. You kill to live and live to kill. And in the moment, you’re untouchable. Nothing on earth could stop you.”

Hyungwon licks his lips again and peels and eats his fifth orange, idly stacking the peels up together like he had the night before. Minhyuk breathes in the smell of salt and sand and sea and citrus.

“Except you aren’t living anymore,” Minhyuk says.

Hyungwon looks up at him, and he smiles. Fangs and all. 

“Except I’m not living anymore,” he repeats, voice almost washed away like the waves. 

“If it felt so good, why stop? Do you know what people would give to feel untouchable?” Minhyuk asks. 

“I do. I gave it, remember?”

Minhyuk sighs, looking down at his unfinished sketch. 

“So, why stop?” he asks again. 

There is silence for a long time. So long that Minhyuk starts listening to the sound of gulls calling in the distance and the distant movement of the ocean instead of to what’s there in front of him. Hyungwon doesn’t move. He just stares down at the neat pile of orange peels he has made in his lap, and Minhyuk can see his jaw twitch with words that just won’t spill out. 

When Hyungwon moves again, it isn’t to speak. He picks the peels up and tosses them in the fire pit before lighting it, sinking down on his haunches as he watches the flames go up. Minhyuk wants to ask again, wondering if he had forgotten, but before he gets the chance, Hyungwon finally speaks. 

“One day I was feeding, and when I pulled away and looked down at them, they were still alive. And I remember one of the first things Machiel told me was to never look into their eyes after you start, but I couldn’t help it,” he says softly. It barely breaks over the sound of the fire crackling, and Minhyuk worries for a moment about the recording when Hyungwon sighs and stands up. 

“I never understood why he told me that, but at that moment I did. He didn’t want me to see,” he says.

Swallowing, Minhyuk sits up straighter. “He didn’t want you to see what?”

Hyungwon turns his head to look at him, and there’s the empty sad smile on his face again. 

“Their fear,” he answers simply.

Minhyuk’s stomach goes in knots. All he wants is to go back to the comfort of his $75 dollar a night room, lay under the fan, and not think for a while. 

But this is not a thing to ever forget. This is a thing to be etched in his memory forever. 

“I had heard it, of course. Their hearts were always so loud in my head, but I never paid it any mind before then. Just a thing that came along with feeding. But when I saw that fear in their eyes, it suddenly dawned upon me what I was. What I truly was. That vampire is just a pretty word for a monster.”

The tear that falls down Minhyuk’s face catches both of them off-guard. Minhyuk quickly looks away to wipe his face, and Hyungwon looks back at the fire just as quickly.

“Sorry, I don't know what came over me,” Minhyuk says quickly, sniffling a bit and trying to laugh it off. 

“It’s fine.”

“Is that why you hide in here and survive off oranges? So you won't be a monster anymore?” Minhyuk asks. 

“I guess that is one way to put it. Although it doesn't change what I am just because I stopped feeding. I still have the blood of thousands on my hands.”

“But that's how you eat and survive. It was the only way you knew how because Machiel didn't teach you any other way.”

Hyungwon looks at him again, blinking at him. 

“Is that what that tear was? Pity? Empathy?” 

Minhyuk swallows. “I don't know. The lion never feels guilty over eating the antelope.”

“And that's what you see me as? The lion? Does that make you the antelope?”

Minhyuk shifts uncomfortably. “You said I had nothing to fear from you.”

“And you don't,” Hyungwon says before looking back at the fire. 

“Can we talk about something else then? Before your great epiphany?”

Hyungwon sighs and finally goes back to settle down on his blankets. 

“If you wish,” he says softly. 

The summer heat sinks into Minhyuk’s skin as he wipes the sweat off his brow. The windows are open, and there’s a cool evening breeze filtering through them, but it isn’t enough to get rid of all the heat that had gotten trapped in the room through the day. He’s laying on his stomach on the bed, finishing up his tenth full sketch of him, listening to the recordings to make sure it’s all still there. 

He had made it back to the hostel earlier than he had every night for the past week or so, the moon still rising in the sky. The hostel owner had smiled and asked him if he had enjoyed the beach, and Minhyuk said he had, even though he didn’t really even see the beach for very long. 

Hyungwon had spent days laying back on his blankets and telling him all kinds of stories about him and Machiel through the years. He talked on and on about how they would hunt constantly, but it was the moments between the hunts that really stood out to Minhyuk. 

He sighs and turns over onto his back, pushing his sketchbook to the side to make room. Picking up the tape recorder, he skips ahead a bit before dropping it onto his chest and closing his eyes. 

There is a pause in the talking, but Minhyuk can still hear the audio buzzing with the sound of a fire crackling and wind picking up here and there at the mouth of the cave. He wishes he was in the cave now, watching Hyungwon peel oranges and talk about his life like it isn’t his. A ghost telling another ghost’s life story. 

_ “So you liked to go to the theater?” _ Minhyuk’s voice asks. 

Minhyuk bites his lip, anticipating Hyungwon’s answer. 

_ “We did. The opera was fun. We liked going to conservatories as well to hear classical music. It was some of the few times we just...were.” _

_ “What do you mean by that?” _

There’s silence. Minhyuk can imagine Hyungwon so clearly in his mind. The way he was staring at the fire or staring off at the cave wall. 

_ “I was never hunting then. I was just...listening to the music or watching the performance. I wasn’t thinking about my next meal.” _

_ “You said we before, but now you’re only talking about yourself.” _

_ “I don’t know if Machiel thought like I did. Maybe he was always thinking about the hunt or his next kill.” _

_ “What happened to him? Machiel.” _

Minhyuk bites his lip as he listens to the crackling of the audio. He almost holds his breath as he waits. It had been the question on his mind ever since Hyungwon had mentioned the man that turned him. The man that was always in his stories but strangely absent.

_ “Machiel isn't here anymore,” _ is all Hyungwon says after the long silence. 

Minhyuk sighs and hits pause on the recording again. He knows what comes after that. Hyungwon gets tired as he always does, and asks if they can talk again the next day because he wants to sleep. 

He rolls back over and looks at his sketch. It's of Hyungwon staring into the fire, that empty look in his eyes. It doesn’t really do him justice. Even if there was no emotion in his eyes or movements, there was still something alive there. Minhyuk didn’t see it at first, but after spending hours every day with him, he did see it now. And his sketch...well, it didn't capture it at all. It looked like he had drawn a statue. 

“Shit.”

Minhyuk closes the book and rubs his face, trying to stop all the thoughts. 

He understood how Hyungwon got swept away in a matter of days. Even if Hyungwon has been honest about the ugly parts, Minhyuk can't help but see the incredible life he lived. The power he had. The days and years and decades he spent living freely, doing only what he wished. That was enticing even if Minhyuk considered himself living happily. 

But there was something about Hyungwon that drew Minhyuk in even more. Minhyuk found himself watching him, waiting for even the smallest glimpse of who he truly is beneath the bleached out facade.

It was there, of course, would come up for a millisecond before washing away again. The twitch in the corner of his lips telling a happy memory. The furrow of his brow like he was keeping tears at bay. The little hums of music whenever he was recalling a particular piece. 

Hyungwon is beautiful, of course. Even now, living as a phantom of a man, he is beautiful. Elegant and naturally graceful in a way Minhyuk only ever dreamed of being. Face small and almost fragile and fascinating from the curve of his upper lip to the slope of his brows. Fingers deft and delicate as they peel oranges and pull them in halves without tearing or bruising the flesh of it. 

Even the fangs didn't scare him anymore. They simply were. A part of him and his mystery, hidden behind full lips and shown off in the quick little bites he took. 

His chest aches like the heat has compounded itself into a weight on top of him, and he huffs out a breath as he rolls over again, pulling himself up to lean his elbows against the windowsill and breathe in the fresh air. 

Hyungwon had told him that vampires are always alluring, and that humans are always blinded from danger by beautiful things. It took him three days to decide to leave his entire life behind to be with Machiel. And Minhyuk looks out at the thousands of stars shining in the darkness of the night sky and knows that if he had met Hyungwon in his prime, it would have taken him only a day to make him entirely his. Whether it'd be as his prey or as a companion, Minhyuk doesn't know, but his chest aches again at the thought. 

From his little window at the hostel, he cannot see past La Llave to his little cave on the side of a cliff, but he wishes he could. He wishes he could look upon him even now, even in his slumber.

Even if it meant forever, one way or another. 

“You bring me so many. I thought I had said I only needed five,” Hyungwon says as Minhyuk carefully puts the oranges he brought all out in a row. 

“I know, but I want to be sure. Do you really only want five, or do you cut yourself off at five?” Minhyuk asks. 

It's gotten easier to ask questions after three weeks of this, even if some questions stay unanswered. Minhyuk still doesn't know what happened to Machiel, and whenever he brought it up, Hyungwon got tight-lipped, and he wanted to avoid that. But otherwise, Hyungwon is a surprisingly open book, telling him minute details of places he had seen and people he had met, and Minhyuk was devastatingly fascinated. He couldn’t get enough of the quiet voice that had a hidden baseline, muted out by the monotone of his deadened feelings. Of the stories he painted with his words. Of him, both the one that sat in front of him, and the one that he used to be. 

“Five is what I need and all I can tolerate,” Hyungwon says. 

“Oh?”

“I think if I tried to eat more I'd feel sick. Too full.”

“Did you get too full on blood as well? Or is it just the oranges?” Minhyuk asks. 

“On everything. Though I could tolerate more blood than I can oranges.”

Minhyuk snorts a bit and glances up to catch Hyungwon staring at him. He doesn't look away when he's caught. He never does. He just tilts his head a bit before reaching for the closest orange, and Minhyuk stills, too aware of how close they are when he does. 

“Hyungwon, I was wondering about something after all your stories,” Minhyuk says. The tape recorder has already been on, and he tries to walk quietly as he moves to sit on his rock like always. 

“I find it interesting when you don't actually ask your question,” Hyungwon says as he starts to peel his orange like always. 

“Well, most people, after living for so long, would have fallen in love somewhere along the way,” Minhyuk says. 

Hyungwon’s fingers pause for a moment before they keep moving again, acting as if nothing has happened. 

“That still isn't a question,” Hyungwon says. 

“I think I have multiple questions. I just don't know how to ask them.”

“Hm.”

Hyungwon chews on his orange section, stares at the wall. Minhyuk wonders if he could fit on the blanket next to him. If he could make a home there. 

“Have you ever been in love?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon blinks and looks at him before swallowing and nodding. 

“Yes,” he says. 

“Were you in love with Machiel?”

“No,” Hyungwon answers just as easily. 

“So you didn't love Machiel?”

“I didn't say that. I did love him, but not the way you're implying. He was a friend. A mentor. A brother in arms. I had affection for him, but, no, I was never in love with him.”

“Then who did you fall in love with?” Minhyuk asks.

Hyungwon sighs and starts on his next orange. 

“Before I was turned into this. There was a man from the village. He was a fisherman, and he sang as he brought his haul into the market,” Hyungwon says. 

Minhyuk blinks. “Was he the reason you could never fit into your family’s image?”

Hyungwon looks at him. The sad smile that Minhyuk was becoming all too familiar with appeared. 

“There were nights that I wished I could be what my parents wanted me to be. That I could marry whatever woman they set me up with. That I could have sons to carry on their line like they wanted. I wanted to be a good son for a long time, but...I wanted to be happy too.”

“And the fisherman made you happy?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon hums. “He did. He did until he decided that he cared more about being a good son than being happy.”

“Oh,” Minhyuk says. His chest feels heavy again, and he's too hot despite the breeze and the shade in his spot. He doesn't cry only because he focuses quickly on anything else. 

“It was not long after that when Machiel came, and well. I cared more about being happy, and I thought that was the only way.”

“I see. Is he the only one then? Do vampires not fall in love?” Minhyuk asks. This question prickles at the back of his mind like thorns on a flower. 

“Vampires can fall in love. And I did once or twice feel myself falling for someone as the years passed, but that never lasted long,” Hyungwon answers. 

“Oh? Why not? Could you not have turned them like Machiel turned you? Been with them by your side for eternity?”

Hyungwon smiles again. Void and desolate. 

“Because I was afraid. Creating a vampire is no easy feat. It takes courage and conviction that I didn't have. It was much easier to kill them instead.”

It is far too hot and humid and the air is heavy as Minhyuk turns his head toward the mouth of the cave, breathing deep like he had just emerged out of water. 

“Your heart…” Hyungwon croaks out. When Minhyuk looks back at him, his eyes are shut, his whole face scrunched as he curls into himself, shielding his ears from what must be something deafening. 

“Sorry, give me a moment, it's just so hot today. Can barely breathe,” Minhyuk says. He leaves everything as he stumbles out of the cave, and sucks in the salty air like it's a lifeline and stares up at the vast blueness of the sky like it is a steadier presence than the ground beneath him. 

He knows it isn't much time he spends outside, but it is longer than he wants. He manages to calm himself back down as the breeze blows by him, and the beach and dunes sprawl out around him. 

Minhyuk walks back into the cave to find Hyungwon staring up at him, head tilted again. 

“You haven't done that before,” Hyungwon says. 

“No. I'm sorry. I just...it was so hot and...can we get back to the interview?”

Hyungwon keeps staring at him, but he nods.

“So you killed people you thought you could fall in love with?” Minhyuk asks carefully. 

“Well, yes. But I didn't kill them because of that. It was more like...they were harder hunts. We needed money and rich men don't just give you their money or keep it around for everyone to see. We...needed to get close to them to be able to get all the money and things we could, and that took time. They were always meant to die, but the falling in love part...that was the fluke,” Hyungwon says. 

“I see.”

“But their money lasted us a long time. We didn't need to do that often. Just…”

“Once or twice,” Minhyuk finishes for him. 

“Yes. Exactly.”

Minhyuk licks his lips, gathering his thoughts. He picks up his sketchbook and starts to doodle oranges in the corner of a page. 

“What...kind of men were they? The men you found yourself falling in love with?” He asks softly. 

Hyungwon hums, but Minhyuk doesn't look up at him, afraid that if he looks up the thundering in his chest will get too loud again. 

“They were...passionate. They found life in every corner of every room they were in. Whether he was a fisherman who could tell if he was going to make a good catch by the way the wind moved and the reeds floating by and could fill up a room with a song, or whether he was a man who was born rich and only got richer but could recite poetry from memory even if he was drunk on sweet wine, they could just captivate anyone.”

“Including you?” Minhyuk asks. 

There's quiet again, and this time Minhyuk does look up. Hyungwon hasn't touched any more oranges, but his hands seem restless, thumbs twiddling together as he thinks. 

“Yes,” he says quietly. 

Hyungwon looks at him again, and Minhyuk loses his breath. There's something there. Something beneath the dazed sheen of his eyes that is trying to come up, but it’s stuck. 

And Minhyuk doesn't know what compels him to ask the next question that falls from his lips, but he couldn't stop himself if he tried. 

“What happened to Machiel, Hyungwon?”

Hyungwon sniffs, and Minhyuk expects him to pull away. To look at the fire. To feign being tired. But he doesn't. He just stares back at Minhyuk. 

“He...he’s gone,” Hyungwon says softly, and it sounds like the crackling of flames and the wind on the waves. 

“Gone?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon nods, sniffing again. “He...we didn't understand each other anymore. I was guzzling down orange juice, crying out the last of my emotions and the guilt I felt, and he didn't understand. And I wasn't...I couldn't be his companion anymore. He wanted to live. I just wanted to survive.”

Minhyuk waits, wondering if he should ask him to go on, to explain, but Hyungwon licks his lips, and continues. 

“He brought me here. There were always oranges here. He hated the decision I made, but he couldn't change it. We saw a sunset together, and he said he had to go. I went to sleep. And then he was gone. He wasn't in La Llave, and I didn't want to leave and follow after him. And that was it. Maybe he’s out there somewhere in the world, living as happily as he could. Maybe he has a new companion. Maybe he was finally tired enough to lay down to rest. But he's gone. And I don't expect I'll ever see the man that made me ever again.”

Minhyuk sniffs, frowning as a tear splashes down on his book. Hyungwon watches him with those eyes that want to feel but won't for a long time before he finally looks away, reaching for another orange. 

“Aren't...aren't you lonely?” Minhyuk asks. 

Hyungwon shrugs. “I could be.”

“Hyungwon, I don't understand.”

Hyungwon pauses and looks up at him again. 

“What do you not understand?”

“You said that you could live off animals if you had to, or that you don't have to kill to be satisfied while feeding. You don't...you don't have to do this to yourself.”

Hyungwon tilts his head. “Do what to myself?”

“You're a phantom. The man you've told me about…I don't understand how he can live like this. Your favorite operas were the passionate romances, and your favorite pieces of music were the ones that moved you to tears, and you fell in love with men that lit up rooms, and you wanted to be free so badly that you ran away with a vampire after only knowing him for three days. And now you sit here and waste away and burn orange peels.” 

Hyungwon doesn't seem taken aback. He barely even reacts. He just drops his eyes from Minhyuk’s face. 

“Your heart is loud again,” he says softly. 

“Shit,” Minhyuk sighs out, looking out of the cave again. The sun is lower in the sky, but not enough to paint the sky different colors. He finds himself searching for the pink haze of that first day, the otherworldly feeling that somehow didn't feel out of place at all. He takes a deep breath and looks back over at Hyungwon, trying to untwist the words on his tongue. 

“Hyungwon,” Minhyuk says. 

“Yes?” Hyungwon looks up at him again, and he does look tired now. Like if he could only close his eyes he would sleep for eternity. 

“I could...we could…” Minhyuk tries. 

“You know, I think I could have loved you once,” Hyungwon says. 

Minhyuk shuts his mouth and stares at him. 

Hyungwon’s lips twitch up into something like a smile for a moment before they flatten out again. 

“Every day you came in here and acted like the sun shining into the deep corners of my cave. I was trying to hide, and you sought me out, and your eyes…your eyes light up from the inside out,” Hyungwon says. 

“Hyungwon--”

“I could have. If it was before. If I was still living. I think I would have loved you.”

Minhyuk knows his heart is thundering in his chest as he puts his sketchbook down. 

“You could be alive again. You could love me still,” Minhyuk says softly. 

“No, I--”

“Feed from me,” Minhyuk whispers. 

Hyungwon stares at him. And then he swallows, once, slow. 

“I haven't had blood in years. I could kill you,” Hyungwon says. 

Minhyuk shakes his head and moves closer, off the rock, on his knees, past the neat line of oranges on the blanket until his hands cradle the sides of Hyungwon's face. He doesn't try to stop him. He just stares, and there's still something there behind his eyes. 

“You don't have to be lonely. You could live. Live with me,” Minhyuk whispers. 

“After everything I've told you, you still want this life?” Hyungwon asks. 

Minhyuk’s breath comes out shaky as he nods slowly. 

“I want this life with you. It took you three days to want this, and it took me less. But I want it.”

He sucks in a breath before he leans closer, and Hyungwon closes his eyes as Minhyuk presses his lips against his smooth forehead. 

“You’re a fool,” Hyungwon whispers.

Minhyuk snorts, but then Hyungwon is touching the back of his hand, his arm, pulling it closer and turning towards it. 

Minhyuk imagined it would hurt, and it does when Hyungwon sinks his fangs into the soft give of his wrist, but then Hyungwon moans as his lips wrap around the wound, and all the pain is forgotten. 

“Fuck,” Minhyuk groans out as Hyungwon drinks, and he can see a blush forming on Hyungwon’s cheeks, something he's never seen before. And when Hyungwon opens his eyes and looks at him, they aren't dazed and shut off anymore, but  _ alive _ . 

Minhyuk whimpers as he keeps drinking and drinking, his grip growing stronger as Minhyuk feels his body getting weaker and weaker. 

He looks out towards the mouth of the cave, and all he can see is blue as he closes his eyes, and all he can hear is the thundering in his head and his chest as it slows and slows. 

And maybe he should have heeded Hyungwon’s warning. He must be ravenous, living off oranges and sand alone for so long. Maybe too ravenous. 

Minhyuk lets out a breath, wondering if it’ll be his last. 

And then he feels a warmth against his lips and tastes something like oranges and copper.

“Come on, drink. If I'm going to live, then you're going to live with me.”

It takes all of Minhyuk’s strength to swallow, but he does it. His throat feels parched as the thick blood covers it. And then moving gets easier and easier with each pull. 

“There you are,” Hyungwon says. Minhyuk slowly opens his eyes and looks up at him, still drinking from the wrist Hyungwon has pressed against his lips. 

“It’ll be okay. You're doing okay,” Hyungwon says. He reaches down to push Minhyuk’s hair out of his face, and Minhyuk feels like he could cry. 

Hyungwon is smiling. A real smile. Full of joy and hope and promise. His cheeks are still flushed, and his voice almost feels loud compared to how it was before. An actual voice instead of the semblance of one. 

“That's enough,” Hyungwon says as he pulls his wrist away. He brings his own wrist up to his mouth and licks it before focusing back down on Minhyuk. 

In the distance, he can hear the wind through palm fronds, and the waves crashing against the shore, and the tiny voices of the market in the town. He can see colors on the cave walls he never noticed before, and he huffs out a breath as his body fills with life again. 

He pushes himself up until he's sitting, and Hyungwon helps him up, looking him over, and there's concern in his gaze until Minhyuk reaches out to cup his face again. 

Minhyuk pulls him closer and kisses him, moaning against the taste of copper and citrus on his lips. Hyungwon laughs against him and kisses him back. 

And Minhyuk had never felt more alive.    
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
